Seth Apter's Blog, page 109

Playing Favorites: Chapter 5

Welcome to the 5th edition of The Pulse -- The State of the Art -- a survey in words and pictures of the online artist community. The Pulse is a collaborative project that aims to introduce you to new artists, help you get to know familiar faces even more, and allow you access into the creative hearts and minds of a very talented crew of individuals. More than 130 artists have answered a series of questions which make up The Pulse. Their responses will be presented in a series of online posts which will run every Sunday.
Style File, Techniques & Tools, Master Class, and It's Still Life were the first four projects posted and links to all these posts can be found on the sidebar of my blog. The fifth project, Playing Favorites, continues now...


Participants were asked to: share a picture of a favorite piece of art that you have created and explain its meaning to you...
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Svetlana Spasojevic
"Tragic events in my home country in the late 90s have resulted not only in the disappearance of a country from the world maps but more importantly have left many generations of people with wounded memories. This altered book Retrieved from Ashes is dedicated to my mother's sporting career."

theresa mARTin
 "Julie's Dream is made up of components that remind me of people and different times of my life. The wooden house part is from an elaborate birdhouse constructed by my late uncle. The horse and its china wing were given to me by a friend names Julie. There is a tintype from my antique photo collection beneath the magnifying glass. The chain is like the chain of swings from years ago. It's made with objects that evoke happy moments from the past."

Darlene AkAHugGeR Wilkinson
"I can't say this is a fave because I don't have faves but this is one of my pieces."

Luthien Thye
"This must be the most meaningful piece of art I have ever made. Wee is inspired and especially created in tribute to my little 29-weeker baby, Maia Fae. It represents the struggle she had to face upon her arrival in this world...her fight to survive, her strength, her tenacity and her spirit. The stamp numbers are the identification number on Maia's NICU tag. The littlest washer of course represents her...small (she was 1.3kg at birth) and unique but has as much right to be amongst us as her larger counterparts. My wee one, my fighter, my miracle..."

Kim Palmer
"I created this piece as part of the Pulp Redux collaboration for Debrina's book and it is for me representational of my own ability to overcome obstacles. It required so many problem solving techniques to complete the ideas that I had formed in my head, and I wanted to work with metal in ways I hadn't previously. The finished piece also had to perform within the book structure. As I said, lots of problem solving but I was really happy with how I overcame the construction obstacles and was able to produce the piece as I had envisioned it."

Leslie Marsh
"This is my 365 Grateful project and the book I made to house my daily photos. One of my favorite pieces - this week. It's not that large - about 6" by 9"- but it's 3 inches thick, with two days' photos on a page! I like the feel of this book in my hands, the image of the girl stopping to smell the flowers and the combination of an old book cover, metal elements and waxed linen thread. I like knowing that this book will hold a year's worth of gratitude, and my heart will hold the fresh perspective that the exercise brings."

Pam McKnight
"This was created with found objects but has a much deeper meaning as each tag honors a person that died in a horrendous fire at the Pioneer Hotel represented by the hanger."

Art by Canace
"Eleventh Hour is a very powerful assemblage for me. Many religions, prognosticators and ancient civilizations dictate some sort of Armageddon or apocalypse in our near future. These predictions in my  opinion are totally unfounded, however they have for centuries manipulated peoples' thoughts and judgements about their future causing them to experience untold anxieties, pain and fears."

Jeanie Thorn
"This is Patch which is composed of the basic elements of lines, planes and shapes. In addition to the engineering challenge of fabrication and assembly, it contains many of the elements of design I find so important: balance (in this case asymmetrical balance), harmony, rhythm, texture, emphasis and focus, contrast and variety, proportion and scale."

Debbie Price-Ewen
"This piece is called Driftwood Girl, in honour of myself, because I loved walking among the driftwood and combing the beach (Foxton Beach, New Zealand) for 'finds'. Some of my best, creatively inspired moments have come to me whilst scouring the beach. As well as being an endless source of inspiration, it has a rich history.  In colonial times it was a 'highway' of sorts because there were no roads, and so I constantly think about my ancestors doing the hard miles along this is the connecting coastal beaches."
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Next "Playing Favorites" will be posted on Sunday, September 23rd.

Memoire Redux

Sending out thanks to Jen Cushman for featuring Memoire as one of her inspirations today on Crescendoh.

Making Art

This past weekend I spent an evening with 13 people doing what I like to do best...making art. 

I taught my Text Tiles workshop at Little Bird Creation Studio in NYC. Michele Luxenberg has recently opened this new art space and is working hard to bring heavy hitters from the mixed media world to New York. Ingrid Dijkers was recently here and both Dawn Devries Sokol and Sue Pelletier are on the schedule too. 
The workshop was all about working small but with a big impact. Using wood cradled panels as the substrate, layer upon layer of texture and color was created...




Text was used as the primary foreground component for these pieces...


The final pieces were all tremendous and a good time was definitely had by all...

Follow these links to blog posts from people in the workshop to see some additional photos and a lot of wonderful art...
Art Saves LivesBetti's BeehiveArt by Kathleen NesiQuinceberryStamp with Stephanie[image error]

Playing Favorites: Chapter 4

Welcome to the 5th edition of The Pulse -- The State of the Art -- a survey in words and pictures of the online artist community. The Pulse is a collaborative project that aims to introduce you to new artists, help you get to know familiar faces even more, and allow you access into the creative hearts and minds of a very talented crew of individuals. More than 130 artists have answered a series of questions which make up The Pulse. Their responses will be presented in a series of online posts which will run every Sunday.
Style File, Techniques & Tools, Master Class, and It's Still Life were the first four projects posted and links to all these posts can be found on the sidebar of my blog. The fifth project, Playing Favorites, continues now...


Participants were asked to: share a picture of a favorite piece of art that you have created and explain its meaning to you...
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Angela Cartwright
"I picked this piece called Soul Searching because I was deep into exploring the use of different materials, I was writing my first book about art In This House , and I was completely immersed in who I was, why I was, what I wanted and where I was going. This art was in my exhibit Soul Dwellings and it was a turning point in the discovery of myself. I look at these pieces now and smile while I contemplate how much I have grown."

Amy Duncan
"Keep Going was one of the first multi-media collage pieces I created and it remains one of my most popular images. Everything about its composition just fell into place. The phrase of Keep Going can mean different things to different people so its interpretation is open...which keeps the dialogue going...which is what I strive for."

Bleubeard and Elizabeth
"I'm not sure if Her Colorful Ways is a favorite but it exemplifies how far I have come from a composition standpoint. It also shows how much I enjoy adding sewing to my mixed media pieces."

William J. Charlebois
"I created this multi-media painting while taking an online class from Mystele Kirkeeng called Gut Art. I was finally able to totally let go and create physical art and enjoy the process while doing it."

JoAnnA Pierotti
"This is a painting I did back in 2004. I painted this for a friend's birthday because he owned this truck. I think it was around the year 2001 that a friend asked me to paint something on a trunk for her baby son. I didn't know what to paint for a boy, since most of my work was on the feminine side. Her husband challenged me and I painted an old truck. This was the second truck I painted using acrylic."

Lani Gerity
"Here's an image that I concocted with an old photo, coloring it and then adding it to this background, adding the house and the sheep as well. Then I added a 'Through the Viewfinder' layer for texture and depth. I also used some 'Flypaper Textures' (really super). When I look at this picture, for some reason I feel quite happy and hopeful, like we are encouraging each other to do more, create more, be more, take more risks... We are encouraging each other to be awake and alive. I love that!"

Diana Trout
Dreaming (1999), a triptych, is a deeply personal piece that my daughter inspired and it will go to her someday. For me, it is about everything that is possible if you dream. It's about the earth as well, how we feel about it - almost as if we humans are sneaking up on our unsuspecting planet and doing harm."

Marsha Jorgensen
"Small Me is a favorite because it is a deeply personal acknowledgement of something that happened long ago and the acceptance of how it will always be with me. It takes guts to acknowledge some things in our lives and facing it is a victory of sorts."

Sarah Fishburn
"These are art journal pages finished in the fall of 2001for the original True Colors project. 'I count myself among the blessed for evening squandered drunk with sunset' is my personal prayer for gratitude for life, with all of its curses and blessings. I used a combo of techniques - image transfers, metallic paint, rubber stamps, transparencies, and attached a stitched booklet of a few stanzas by other poets, including the following lines of Emma Lazarus from her poem The New Colossus:

Here at our sea-washed,
sunset gates shall stand
A mighty women with a torch,
whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightening,
and her name
Mother of Exiles"

Stephanie Hilvitz
"Sanctuary, this was quite a departure from what I had been doing, but also came directly from journal explorations. It is a photograph of my daughter's beautiful hands and was done for a show that I ended up being rejected from but took such inspiration from the prospectus which had to do with creating sanctuary that it sparked many other works.
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Next "Playing Favorites" will be posted on Sunday, September 16th.

Easy Mixed Media

Happy to announce that my recently released workshop DVDs from North Light Media are now available through the shops at Amazon (see links below).

In my first DVD, Easy Mixed Media Techniques for the Art Journal (on Amazon.com and on Amazon Canada), I guide you through a step-by-step tutorial in making a unique art journal using mixed-media texture making, distressing, and layering techniques. While technique driven, the finished project can be used as a personal journal, artist book, or a place to document and revisit your newly learned techniques.



In the second DVD, Easy Mixed Media Surface Techniques (on Amazon. com and on Amazon Canada), I take you through a series of steps to introduce you to my Painted Grid process. You will learn how to create texture, incorporate text and mark-making, and design finish touches to complete your work. This technique-driven workshop also includes directions to complete several projects incorporating the painted grid as both a background and a focal image.



One of the projects that I show you how to create step-by-step and that I actually completed during the filming of my Surface Techniques DVD is Blackbird...

 She is now available for purchase in my Etsy Shop.
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Four new artist survey questions have been added to the sidebar of my blog. Head on over and speak your mind - anonymously. The polls are open![image error]

Playing Favorites: Chapter 3

Welcome to the 5th edition of The Pulse -- The State of the Art -- a survey in words and pictures of the online artist community. The Pulse is a collaborative project that aims to introduce you to new artists, help you get to know familiar faces even more, and allow you access into the creative hearts and minds of a very talented crew of individuals. More than 130 artists have answered a series of questions which make up The Pulse. Their responses will be presented in a series of online posts which will run every Sunday.
Style File, Techniques & Tools, Master Class, and It's Still Life were the first four projects posted and links to all these posts can be found on the sidebar of my blog. The fifth project, Playing Favorites, continues now...


Participants were asked to: share a picture of a favorite piece of art that you have created and explain its meaning to you...
------------------------------------------

Kim Logan
"This is a favourite collage piece using an old Victorian picture frame. I loved the photograph as it has a similarity of that of an old photograph I have of my father when he was 17. Even though the clothes and eras are different, the air of confidence is the same, and both men convey their optimism for the future."

Deb Eck
"Entering Utopia: This is still my all time favorite, although I love many of my other pieces. This work combines all my obsessions: my love of conceptual works inspired by texts (The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman), my love of tedious repetitive work (completely coloured by hand using pencils), pattern, intricate cuttings, and large scale (8x4 feet). It still stops my breath whenever I see it and I am amazed that it came out of my head through my hands."

Alicia Caudle
"Since I was a teeny child I dreamed of being Alice in Wonderland and oftentimes would not respond unless I was addressed as 'Alicia in Wonderland'. Later in life I developed a huge adoration for taxidermy and apothecary related things, which I have coupled with Alice and my love of nature in this piece. This is the first in a series of six similar pieces, this piece titled Finding the Rabbit Hole. It is filled with lots of secret nooks and crannies, 'holes' and obscured doors, and drawers full of treasures (such as butterfly wings, old buttons and beetles) that I may have in my imaginary childhood journeys."

Cathie Parreco
"Flower of Spain: This piece is a favorite because it came out exactly as I conceived it in my head (which doesn't happen very often). The literal meaning, well, carnations are the 'official' flowers of Spain and these are dancing to the title of some sheet music I found by the same name. Pretty deep, huh?"

Lisa Sarsfield
"Truth: One of my collages for the ICE exchange tops the list as my favourite because of the way I felt when I completed it. It went beyond being pleasing to my eye (although it is that) and spoke to me in a more deep and meaningful way. The writing says 'In the silence screams the truth' which I feel is slightly provocative. It stirs up emotions and asks questions of the viewer. I feel it really expressed what my Fragile series was about. The collage is now part of the permanent ICE collection as I couldn't bring myself to either swap or sell it."

Tracie Lyn Huskamp
"This is a piece from a series called Forget Me Nots. Each piece incorporates a page from a vintage autograph album. The words are both beautiful and haunting, as well as a perfect bit of texture to a rather stark background. A pop of color is incorporated through the addition of the painted bird subjects. These images are symbolic in meaning, as birds represent flight and freedom, reinforcing the idea that our words have wings.

Martha Marshall
"Ritual 50: This painting is a favorite because I feel that with it I achieved the feeling of spontaneity and randomness that I try to get in my paintings and collages, but which can sometimes be so elusive."

Roxanne Evans Stout
"This book called Be the Light is one of my favorite books. I love it because I made it when I realized that I was my father's 'light' and that we are all someone's light., and that we should honor that and honor ourselves. This book is filled with images that I love, from the past and present."

Sally Turlington
"This is mail art that is simple in message - our families are limited editions -- while at the same time, quite opposite in technique:

1. Mixed media collage items -- newspaper, graph paper, postage stamps, artist-made images.
2. Computer generated stamped image of a custom collage piece Limited Edition.
3. Limited Edition stamped image applied via water transfer to envelope.
4. Brayered ink background on manila envelope.
5. Custom rubber stamps.
6. Sketched images -- pen, colored pencil, graphite.
7. Envelope antiquing via application of waxed pigment.

To me this piece pulled together many unrelated elements and techniques to result in a sweet message with a whimsical tone."

Mary Beth Shaw
"One of my favorites is my book cover (Flavor for Mixed Media), which is very personal and full of self reflection. It came together quickly, as with many of my meaningful pieces - I have to turn off my brain and allow serendipity to take over. The graphic element under the '10' stamps is dollhouse flooring symbolic of foundation for me. The screen at the top is from a door my husband replaced so I feel a family connection. Underneath the cowboy you see the musical word 'Etude' but I have crossed out the 'E' so that 'tude' is showing to symbolize my attitude in trying to achieve against the odds - a self taught artist at the 10 year mark writing a book, geez, who would have thunk? Same with the 'Go'. On the far right I have circles the word 'Solo' which is from a vintage pilot's log. The three men and the number five are also personally symbolic."
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Next "Playing Favorites" will be posted on Sunday, September 9th.
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Picking Portraits

This is a page from my book with a composite photo from work in the book by (from top to bottom) Danny Gregory, Pam Carriker, and Orly Avineri.
I have teamed up with CreateMixedMedia.com and North Light Books to sponsor a contest and I hope you decide to play along.

As you may already know, one artist is highlighted each week on CMM in their feature The Week as Art. That artist creates a "calendar of art" highlighting the dates of that week in an artful way. You can see the entire 2012 calendar here and even submit to be the artist of the week yourself here.

CMM is mixing things up this week. If you head on over to their home page, you will see that the current Week as Art has been designed by seven different artists using their self-portraits from my book The Pulse of Mixed Media: Secrets and Passions of 100 Artists Revealed . Or should I say...portions of their self-portraits.

So on to the contest. head on over to CMM and try to identify as many of the artists included in The Week as Art. Come back to this blog post and leave a comment with your guesses. One week from today, I will select all the comments that have included the correct answers for all 7 artists and those commenters will be entered into a drawing. I will then randomly select one to win the prize of their choice of any book from the North Light Shop.

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Four new survey questions have been posted on my sidebar. Head on over and speak your mind![image error]

Playing Favorites: Chapter 2

Welcome to the 5th edition of The Pulse -- The State of the Art -- a survey in words and pictures of the online artist community. The Pulse is a collaborative project that aims to introduce you to new artists, help you get to know familiar faces even more, and allow you access into the creative hearts and minds of a very talented crew of individuals. More than 130 artists have answered a series of questions which make up The Pulse. Their responses will be presented in a series of online posts which will run every Sunday.
Style File, Techniques & Tools, Master Class, and It's Still Life were the first four projects posted and links to all these posts can be found on the sidebar of my blog. The fifth project, Playing Favorites, continues now...


Participants were asked to: share a picture of a favorite piece of art that you have created and explain its meaning to you...
------------------------------------------

Loryn Spangler-Jones
"Ecstasy. This piece was incredibly transforming for me. A self-portrait in a sense of me coming out of my shell creatively and really breaking down walls."

Anne Bagby
"I rather like this piece because it sat around my studio and I just layered and layered onto it. It started out as a Lynne Perrella inspired, but unused, piece for a magazine article. Then Kari Holbrook sent me a package of bits and pieces and I stuck them on and painted over everything. Then her husband, Mike,  showed me how to cut the 'frame' and it became a shadow box. In New York I picked up some more pieces and added them. THEN I pulled off the top layers and started over. I added more and glazed over them. By the time I stopped I was rather fond of this queen."

Adrienne "Dree" Berry
"Fire. I did this with a gathering of women. I had been encouraged to paint in front of these women but was too scared. But this one time I finally got the courage to do it and this is what came forth."

Theresa Plas
"This piece is from a class taught by Pam Carriker at Art and Soul in Hampton, VA. It represents the first art retreat I participated in. I drove solo in my white pick up truck from Southeast FL to VA and experienced so many wonderful things along the way as well as superb classes."

Nelda Ream
"I named this piece Sister Bird because I was meditating on how connected we are to nature. The 'nest' of hair on the woman points out how much we are all universally alike (I hope)."

Cathy Minerva
"Haze is one of my favorite pieces as it evolved on a rainy day in Georgia. Having all afternoon to myself and finishing a piece in one session is huge to me. I love the texture and movement of this piece as well as the melancholy feeling of a rainy day."

Donna Louise Rodgers
"In Life I am using colour to express volume but it was the pose that really moved me. Men are often portrayed as strong and somehow overbearing to women - which I find distressing. Here you can see the masculine strength but the pose expresses tenderness and vulnerability. I was hugely flattered that the model said that he recognized himself in the image, not just in the likeness of the physical reproduction of the seen object but in the mood too. That's what does it for me - capturing the person as well as what they look like."

Marie Otero

"This piece is a digital composition created using Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. It was born as a response to some rather troublesome issues I was dealing with at that time and at the end of the day this was my reaction to what I was thinking and feeling. It expresses the conclusions I had reached by the time I had sorted everything out in my head."

Jane Royal
"I started sketching portraits in May of 2007. It took a while but this piece was the first to be an accurate likeness of the model. It was a 'breakthrough' piece for me and a big confidence booster."

AnTonia Griva
"Almost Steady Going Nowhere is one of my favorites and it is actually a picture of one of my moments in tranquility time."

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Next "Playing Favorites" will be posted on Sunday, September 2nd.

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I've Got The Blues

PerspectiveAvailable for Purchase in my Etsy Shop
Artist Eric Adama from the blog Cerulean is holding an online exhibition called Ode to Blue. In 5 parts, presented in 5 consecutive blog posts, he is showcasing the work of more than 60 artists -- all in the most beautiful hues of blue. Thank you Eric for this opportunity to see such a wide range of work from so many different artists. And thank you too for including Perspective in the mix.[image error]

News from The Altered Page

Every Monday for at least the next several months I will be posting a series of survey questions on my sidebar, the results of which will be published in my next book, to be released by North Light Books in December 2013. All responses are anonymous and the poll is open to everybody. So pull back the curtain and turn the lever. It is time to vote.....

Tomorrow night, Tuesday 8/21, I will be hosting a Twitter Party from 9-10pm EST. Join me for a live discussion with many of your favorite artists and bloggers. Based on the last Twitter Party, the Tweets will be flying. And for this party, you do not need to worry about parking! For directions, click here.

My eNewsletter for August hits the virtual newsstand very soon. If you would like one in your inbox, be sure to sign up for my mailing list.

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